In this review, we discuss recent advances on the plasticity of cancer stem cells and highlight their relevance to understand the metastatic process and to guide therapeutic interventions. Recent results suggest that the strict hierarchical structure of cancer cell populations advocated by the cancer stem cell model must be reconsidered since the depletion of cancer stem cells leads the other t...

Phenotypic switching is characterized as a virulence factor of Candida spp. This study was carried out to evaluate the phenotypic switching ability of C. krusei ATCC 14243 and to determine its effect on the biological properties, adherence capacity and susceptibility towards chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX). To induce switched generations C. krusei was cultured under nitrogen-depleted growth con...

Phenotypic capacitance refers to the ability of a genome to accumulate mutations that are conditionally hidden and only reveal phenotype-altering effects after certain environmental or genetic changes. Capacitance has important implications for the evolution of novel forms and functions, but experimentally studied mechanisms behind capacitance are mostly limited to complex, multicomponent syste...

The use of networks to integrate different genetic, proteomic, and metabolic datasets has been proposed as a viable path toward elucidating the origins of specific diseases. Here we introduce a new phenotypic database summarizing correlations obtained from the disease history of more than 30 million patients in a Phenotypic Disease Network (PDN). We present evidence that the structure of the PD...

UNLABELLED Natural habitats vary in available nutrients and room for bacteria to grow, but successful colonization can lead to overcrowding and stress. Here we show that competing sibling colonies of Paenibacillus dendritiformis bacteria survive overcrowding by switching between two distinct vegetative phenotypes, motile rods and immotile cocci. Growing colonies of the rod-shaped bacteria produ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS An elevated transferrin saturation is the earliest phenotypic abnormality in hereditary hemochromatosis. Determination of transferrin saturation remains the most useful noninvasive screening test for affected individuals, but there is debate as to the appropriate screening level. The aims of this study were to estimate the mean transferrin saturation in hemochromatosis heteroz...

In cryptococcal infection, phenotypic switching from a smooth to a mucoid variant can occur in vivo, producing variants with enhanced virulence that are subsequently selected and affect the outcome of infection. Here, we demonstrate that antifungal treatment of the chronically infected host can promote this phenomenon. Amphotericin B treatment reduces fungal burden less effectively in mucoid va...

Fertility reduction due to sub-fertile males is a major concern in breeder flocks. Phenotypic traits of broiler breeder males and their relationships with fertility can be used as reliable indicators for identification and removal of sub-fertile males from the breeder flocks. This study was conducted to investigate semen traits (semen volume, sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm count) and...

Among the most important classes of regulatory proteins are the sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins that control transcription through the occupancy of discrete DNA sequences within genomes. Currently, this class of proteins encompasses at least 37 distinct structural superfamilies and more than 100 distinct structural motifs. In this paper, we examine the transcriptional regulator Wor1, a m...